The Best

Series: Changes

Colossians 3:23-25 MSG

My paternal grandmother was born in in 1904 and as I recall was one of eleven children. While the number isn’t extremely important, it does give us the clue we need in developing her profile.

She was one of the older siblings. The birth order is important because she was like a mother to a few of the younger siblings. Through the years I went to her hometown to see other siblings and while I met them once or twice I don’t recall exactly where they lived as adults. I do remember two of her younger brothers because the three of them lived near where I grew up.

I remember seeing them from time to time and she was more like a mother to them than a sister. She was their “go to” adult. My grandparents owned a grocery store in Kansas City, Missouri and grandpa was the butcher. Grandma ran the store. She was diligent and hard-working.

Colossians 3:23-25 tells us, “Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ.”

I remember her for her diligence and her work ethic. I also remember she went to church every Sunday. At work knew every customer’s name and she knew their shopping habits. The ‘girl cousins’ did not bother grandmas while she was working in the store…she was too busy to stop. We did, however run and play and touch base regularly with grandpa.

He was a playful sort of man and while I don’t remember his jokes, I do remember lots and lots of laughter. We knew he was the fun person in the room.

Grandma was the opposite. She was the worker bee.

She did teach me a few sewing skills and mostly she taught me how to play spades, hearts, and rummy. While it was fun learning new games it was still mostly about doing an activity.

Grandma was a woman of God and she was a church goer, but she had a quiet faith that she seldom spoke about. I once asked my dad about her faith and he said while she took her relationship with Jesus seriously, it wasn’t really something she talked about openly.

I think she did her best for God and even though doing her best didn’t include a lot of laughter, she considered life to be a gift from God.

She lost her husband and then she buried both of her sons.

In her last decade on earth she was a bit of a curmudgeon. At the time I didn’t understand why…now I do. Work was a way of life for her and it gave her purpose. She no longer had purpose.

She had macular generation and there was no treatment at that time. She was blind in her final years.

One day when I lived a few hours away and had older children of my own I received a telephone call from my mother. At 97 she passed into the arms of Jesus.

My first thought was, ‘well done good and faithful servant.’

In Jesus, Deborah

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